FRC's Patrina Mosley Testifies Before MD State House in Support of Resolution Declaring Exposure to Pornography a Public Health Hazard

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Patrina Mosley, Director of Life, Culture, and Women’s Advocacy at Family Research Council, testified today before the Health and Government Operations Committee in the Maryland House of Delegates in support of House Joint Resolution 4, which would declare exposure to pornography is a public health hazard.

Mosley offered the following testimony as she explained how pornography perpetuates physical and verbal aggression against women and can facilitate sex trafficking:

"A study of popular pornographic videos in the United States found that nearly all contained physical violence, and half contained verbal aggression. Most of these aggressive acts were perpetrated against women, and their responses were nearly always either neutral or expressions of pleasure. Combine this with the fact that an overwhelming majority of males ages 18-30 are viewing pornography weekly or monthly. How can we not stop to think about how that will impact their sexual attitudes towards women?

“Furthermore, pornography consumers may be unaware that the ‘entertainment’ they are consuming may be involuntary. What viewers may be watching is someone’s humiliation being played and distributed over and over again. Sex traffickers will force their victims to produce pornographic images as advertisements for selling their victims again; thus, producing pornography allows traffickers to capitalize twice off of their victims financially. Pornography is often used by traffickers as a training tool for their victims, so they will know how to ‘perform’ for buyers. It might be better described as what they will have to endure from buyers.

“For the state of Maryland, combating violence against women and bringing justice to victims of sex trafficking can start here – by supporting this resolution declaring pornography to be a public health hazard.”